Cabin Bound
by Illusia
Summary: What's happening to Shelby, and how did Daisy know? Will they be Cabin Bound without a problem? Nah! This is Horizon....they always have problems. I hope you like it. Please Review.
1. Prologe (What's happening to Shelby, and...

~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to the episode Exposed that I used for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC.~  
  
This is the FIRST installment as the sequel to my last fic "To Thine Own Self Be True Series. The Cliffhangers heading up to the cabin   
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
"Shelby!"  
  
Shelby's mind was racing. She could hear Walt's footsteps on the stairs. He was coming up to get her. She knew what he was going to do to er when he found her.   
  
"Shelby!"  
  
She dropped the razor into the trash, and covered it up with some toilet paper. The bandage slid over her ankle and secured it into its place. Then she slid her sock up to cover the mark. If he saw what she did....she didn't even want to think about it.  
  
"Shelby!"  
  
The doorknob turned and light cascaded in from the hallway. Shelby could no longer hold back her screams.  
  
  
The Cliffhangers sat in the lodge waiting for Scott to come back with Shelby. They had been packed and ready to leave for at least twenty minutes, but still no sign of the missing two. Auggie and Juliet were positioned on the couch. Juliet had fallen asleep on him a few minutes ago. Daisy sat on the floor, writing the a journal that looked almost identical to Shelby's. Ezra sat beside her, his hands holding the book of Shakespear's sonnets. David was going through his pack on the other side of the room, showing Jessica what kinds of things he was allowed to pack and get away with.  
  
Daisy closed her journal and shoved it into her pack. She made sure that Shelby's was securely next to hers. Rising to her feet she remembered what Shelby had told her the night before. 'I just don't know what gonna happen to me. Daze, I'm so scared.' Shelby's words rang through her head. 'She doesn't know what's going to happen to her where?' Daisy asked herself cautioiusly. Jumping off of the floor, Daisy raced out of the lodge and to the Infermary, ignoring the shouts of everyone behind her.  
  
  
*I know it's short, but it sets everything up.*  
*Please Review.*  
  



	2. Chapter 2 (Dasiy finds Shelby, but in wh...

~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC.~  
  
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
Scott sat on the edge of Shelby's bed. He had just gone to wake her up so they could get on their way to the Solo Cabin. The second he opened the door he knew there was something wrong. She had been tossing and turning, and he knew all too well what dreams were like when they stopped being dreams. He had walked over to the bed, and the second he touched her, she just started screaming. He just held her until the screaming stopped, rubbing his left hand in large circles on her back to calm her down.   
  
After the shaking stopped, Shelby laid back down on her pillows and fell asleep. Scott just watched her rest. He didn't want to disturb her, so he just sat there, one hand on her thigh.  
  
He knew the nightmares would come again, so he just waited. The door behind him slid open, and Daisy strode into the room. "How is she?"  
  
  
Shelby listened to the counselers talking to Peter. "She'll be fine." He told Hannah. "She's been having a few bad dreams, but she'll be okay."  
  
"What do you want me to tell them?" Hannah shifted and sat down next to Peter on the bed. "Auggie would want to know about this."   
  
  
Scott furrowed his brow and glanced at Shelby. He wanted to konw what he was thinking. "We don't have to tell Auggie everything. He stood and walked over to the door. "I'm gonna go see if I can find Sophie. Try to get her to wake up." Scott left the room suddenly.  
  
  
Hannah reached over and touched Shleby's shoulder. "Shell?" She asked patiently, waiting for her eyes to open. "Come on Shell, wake up." Shelby started to stir and her eyes cracked slightly.   
  
  
Suddenly, Hannah was replaced by Daisy. Shleby didn't know how it happened, or even IF it happened. All of a sudden she was just there. "Hey." Daisy said clamly, reaching out to check the bandage on Shelby's arm. Fresh clothes had been set next to a tray of breakfast foods on the desk beside her. "How ya feeling?"   
  
Her stomach growled, and Shelby reached over for the food. "Truthfully?" She asked, looking up briefly from her cereal. "Horrible. I know that my dream was just that, a dream, but it was just so real." She put her spoon into the bowl and looked at Daisy. "I could feel him coming after me."  
  
The door clicked open, and Sophie entered with her pack. "Go ahead and get ready, Daze. I can take it from here." She slide her pack onto the floor as Daisy stood up. She left reluctantly, trying to promise Shelby that she would be back.   
  
When the door closed again, Sophie turned to face Shelby. "How are you feeling, kiddo?" She asked, attentively re-dressing Shelby's wound.  
  
"Like I'm tired of being asked how I'm feeling." Shelby offered helpfully. She pulled her hair into a messy ponytail and looked up at Sophie. She knew that wasn't the answer Sophie was looking for, but it was the only one she was prepared to give her. After seeing the bandage was secured, Sophie helped Shelby was out of bed.  
  
"Daisy picked your outfits out for you." She said as Shelby pulled her navy blue tank top away from her pale body. "And those are-"  
  
Shelby reached for the blue jeans to pull them off of the shirt. "Queenie's jeans." She finished for her. Tossing them on the bed to reveal a light blue ribbed turtleneck tucked neatly behind a purple tank top. Pulling the tank top over her bra, Shelby's gaze fel on the mirror in the corner. "Could I get any skinnier? She asked her reflection. It took every thing she had not to throw up at the sight of herself.  
  
A hand on her shoulder interupted her thoughts. "I don't want to see you try." Sophie handed her the turtleneck. "Get dressed Slate. You're cabin bound." She turned and grabbed her pack on the way out of the door.   
  
Slate. The word rang through Shelby's head and loud as it could have gotten. Slate. That's what Patty and her friend Alex used to call her. After her first few weeks on the streets she had stayed strong. She was as strong as she had to be to stay alive. As strong as a slate of reinforced concrete. Nothing got through that wall on the streets. Nothing.  
  
  
*Morning came quickly, and Shelby and Patty were lying on the floor listening to one of the cds that Shelby had bought a few days ago. They both had agreed that Bon Jovi wasn't the greatest band that ever lived, but the music was tollerable enough for them to sit there without complaints after work. They hadn't counted their money yet, it was too early, and it would have required them to get up. Neither girl had even gotten out of the outfits that they had worn to work the night before.  
  
As the final chords of "Runaway" erupted from the speakers, Alex unlocked the front door to the apartment. He walked through the hallway into the scarsely furnished livingroom, searching the furnature for the two girls he always came to see. "Patty? Shells? You guys still alive in here?" He saw Shelby first, laying on the large windowsill. Tossing her a pack of cigarettes he moved and sat in the chair next to Patty. Shelby stood and walked into her room to get changed and bring him his payment for keeping her supplied with cigarettes and other assorted goodies.  
  
"Some wish we weren't." Patty said harshly, rolling over to the cd player and switching the music. The two girls were pretty well off alone, but Alex's father owned a Shipping company and making the big bucks. He insisted on helping them out. After pushing the Aerosmith cd into the player, Patty flopped herself onto the couch. "Kill me, Kill me now." She whined as she popped a fe wpils into her mouth.  
  
Shelby walked back into the room as Patty dropped the pills on the coffee table. "You keep these up," she picked the bottle up and dropped them onto the kitchen counter, "and you won't have to worry about us doing it." She looked like Shelby now. Not the girl who got all dolled up and headed out to see how much she could make to live on. Nor was she the lost little girl that Patty had taken in and shown the ropes of the streets. She was as hard as a rock, solid as reinforced concrete.   
  
"Slate." He said after a moment. Shelby turned around and passed him a beer. She saw the look in his eyes and he explained. "That's what you are Shell. You're as solid as slate."  
  
Patty sat up and raised her hand for a beer. Instead of throwing it, Shelby handed it to her and sat next to her on the couch. Patty looked at the girl who was now noticably younger. "I think that's what I'll call you...Slate." *  
  
  
  
Peter had gotten the Cliffhangers all ready to go once Sophie told him about Shelby. Neither one of them thought it was a good idea for her to go, but it was the rules. One down all down, and Shelby would rather die than watch Auggie and Scott fight for the rest of the year. After they had all assembled next to the gazebo, they waited for Shelby. It only took a few minutes.  
  
Her first steps were unsure. It was like she wasn't used to walking. Her tanktop felt snug against her body as she looked down at Juliet's clothes. In a way she was grateful that Juliet was smaller than she was. It saved her the trouble of looking frail, pale and pathetic in front of the group. Then everyone's eyes focused on her. She felt center stage at one of the ballet recitals that she used to participate in. Before...... She shrugged off the thought and grabbed the empty pack from David. "We all set?" She looked up at Peter as if to reassure him that she was going to be fine.  
  
Peter noticed Shelby's change in attitude. He'd seen her pretend before. It usually happened before she self destructed. He said a silent prayer for her as he took his pack from Sophie. " Come on Cliffhangers. We're Cabin Bound." 


	3. Chapter 3 (The Group heads off into the ...

~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace.~   
  
I'd like to thank Kate for bringing the dream sequence to my attention. I'm sorry if that got confusing. From now on, I'm going to put (~) around dreams. Maybe that'll help.  
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
The trip started like any other. All of the group was too tired to start arguing with each other this early. Peter, Ezra and Scott took the lead. With Jessica and David coming up right behind them. They were talking about a movie they had both seen during they're summer break. This made they're tenth time talking about it. Shelby and Daisy set their own pace behind them. going fast enough to stay ahead of Sophie, but not too fast as to catch up with her sister and David. Behind the group, Juliet and Auggie walked with Sophie. They weren't talking about anything. Both Auggie and Sophie had been too busy making sure that Shelby was okay, to discuss anything in detail.  
  
Shelby glanced back at Auggie and then over to Daisy. "They watch me any closer, and I think I'll have to kill someone." She still hadn't gotten used to the fact that she wasn't carrying a heavy pack. That was something that was going to take more than a few minutes to get over. She was also aware that Scott kept turning around every few minutes to look at her. Her mind recalled that mornings events. The nightmare, her waking to find him there with her. She knew that he was just pitying her. She didn't want his pity.  
  
"You don't want him dead." Daisy stated so 'matter of factly.' In a way she knew that she was right. Daisy didn't have to be able to see Shelby's eyes to know what was going on inside her head. "You want yourself dead. You've tried it twice before." She wasn't going to give up on her friend. "I don't even think you want to kill yourself."  
  
"I've done it before." Shelby knew it was a lame come back. She stepped over a tree limb and faced Daisy. "Why don't you think I want to kill myself?" The truth was written all over her face. She wasn't cutting to get attention. It was an outlet. The truth was that she nedded to stay strong for her sister so she just sliced the pain away.   
  
"Killing yourself would be to take the easy way out.   
  
"You would have done it already." Daisy turned away from her and sped up. Trying to catch up with David and Jess wasn't the idea she had in mind, but it was an idea. She hit David on the back of the head with her water bottle and he turned around, falling over the tree trunk that was just a step in front of him. "Smooth one Davey boy." The girls giggled.  
  
David pulled himself up and looked back at Sophie. "Can we rest for a bit?" He asked her tentively.  
  
They were at the part of the path the held the most rocks. Not the small pebbles, but the large rocks that people could sit on. Sophie looked around and shouted up to Peter. "I think we need a break back here."   
  
The guys up front heard the call, and turned around. Walking over to Sophie, Peter threw a glance at Shelby. "You okay, kiddo?" He asked her thoughtfully.   
  
That was the third time in twenty minutes that he had asked her this, and she was tired of it. "I'm fine." She spat back at him. "I was fine the first time you asked, and I'm fine now. If I wasn't, you would know it." She calmed down after a moment and wandered over to a rock. Sliding up onto it, she pulled her knees to her chest. Jessica climed up next to her sister and waited for a second. "Leave me alone Jess." Shelby said calmly.   
  
Jessica looked over at Daisy, and didn't moved. "What's wrong?" She asked attentively. She knew that Shelby had to get it out of her system. "Shell?"  
  
Something hard hit Shelby's foot and she looked down to see her journal. "If you can't say it." Daisy started her Peter impression. "Write it." SHe tossed Shelby a pen and sat down next to her. "Auggie and Scott are gonna hand out lunch." She smiled when Shelby didn't look up from her journal. "Or we could just sit here and watch you write?"  
  
Shelby didn't even awknowledge that someone was next to her. The words on the page were much more important. It was a compliation of her life with Patty and Alex. Sophie's nickname reminded her that there were still some loose ends that needed to be tied. If Alex ever found out where she was... She didn't even want to think about it. Alex wasn't like one of the guys she had met on the street. He was the first guy she had told about Walt. They had a connection that didn't even compare to any other that Shelby had with anyone. Even Scott.   



	4. Chapter 4 (Someone's looking for Shleby....

~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace.~   
  
From now on, I'm going to put (~) around dreams.   
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
Alex Wallace sat across from his father in the limo. They were on their way to Seattle for a business meeting that he really didn't want to go to. He had joined his father's business a few months after they had found Shelby, he hadn't seen her since. His father, Michael, had been talking on his cell phone with Mark Barringer for at least a couple hours. All about the same thing. About Marks son, Scott, and how They had to have the meeting in Seattle instead of Santa Monica because he was just dropping his son back off at school and he needed to stay close incase Scott needed anything.   
  
Alex didn't know anyone he would stay close to. The only two people who meant anything to him were gone now. Patty had been creamated a week and a half after they found her. They didn't even post it in the paper. The police wanted to keep it strictly 'hush hush.' Then there was Slate. 'Shelby' he told himself harshly. 'Her name is Shelby.' He hadn't known anyone like her. Her long blonde hair had been styled in many different ways, but he always loved it down. Nothing got to her on the streets. Which made her extremely different to her cunterpart, Patty. That's why she started using. Patty needed an outlet for all the anger, but Shelby took it as it came. She had been used to pain. The streets were nothing new.   
  
He couldn't shake the image of her as they took her away. When the cops spotted her she had told him to get out of there. The last thing his father needed was a scandal. The closer the cops came, the higher Shelby's head got. Even when they were loading her into the police car she still didn't waver. That was the kind of girl he was meant to be with, and he had let her go. He would never find another Shelby, never.  
  
That thought gave him an idea. Rather than find a girl LIKE Shelby, why doesn't he just FIND Shelby. He picked up his cell phone and dialed the number to his office. His secretary picked up. "Hey Connie I've got a question for you"  
  
Connie perked up at the sound of his voice. She was totally commited to her job working for Alex. "Yes sir?" She asked quickly.  
  
Alex took out his laptop and started up his reports on the proposal that his father had him working on. He wanted to make Michael think that he was asking about something that shehad typed up. "Do me a favor and look into some private dectives. I want to locate an old friend of mine that I've lost touch of over the years." He hit a few keys on the keyboard and nodded to his father.  
  
Connie was already looking through files and running a search on the internet. "I'll see what I can do sir." She coughed into her hand and set the phone back onto the cradle. She would get back to him as soon as she found someone capable enough to work for Alex Wallace, then call him back.  
  
Closing his cell phone and sliding it into his jacket pocket, Alex laid his head back on the coushy pillow that Connie had packed for him. He knew that she would do everything in her power to find someone who could locate Shelby for him. Little did he know that he was going to a meeting with a guy that could tell him exactly where she was. 


	5. Chapter 5 (Daisy does the impossibleand ...

~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace.~   
  
*From now on, I'm going to put (~) around dreams.   
*And to the people who keep hyprevenilating every time I add a new twist to Scott and Shelby. I am still NOT PLANNING on them spliting up. They just take a few detours.   
*I apologize for making the mistake that Scott's father's name was Mark. I will make sure I have it right in the next fic. Thank you to the person who pointed it out.  
  
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
Everyone ate their lunch in silance. With the exception of Shelby, who didn't eat lunch at all. Peter and Sophie both spent ten minutes trying to get her to at least try a bite of the sandwich that Auggie had made her, but she refused. She just sat on a fairly large rock and wrote in her journal. Finally Daisy took the sandwich from Peter nad walked up to Shelby's rock.  
  
"You're eating this one way or the other." She said cautiously, dropping the sandwich onto her journal. "And let me tell you, you don't want to know what way the other is." She watched as Shelby took the a bite out of the sandwich. Everyone sat astonished at the fact that she did it with such ease. "Now, you're gonna tell me what's wrong..."  
  
Peter sat up and looked over at them. "Don't push Daze-"  
  
"How come you can push us, but when we try to push each other it's wrong?" Shelby set her pen in the book to hold her place. It was very rare that she challange Peter, but it had to be done. "It's no wonder you're involving us on this imprompto journey to the cabin. You know that some things are easier said without the threat of CPS, or our parents, being called. We can't trust you with everything." Deep down, Peter knew she was right. He watched as Shelby picked her pen back up and started writing again. She had filled up at least four pages in the past ten minutes, a record in someone's book. If only someone could get a hold of it. "Daisy, I don't want to talk about it."  
  
  
  
No matter how hard she tired, Shelby couldn't make Daisy leave her alone. They packed up their lunch a few minutes ago and they were once again on their way. Daisy didn't say a word to Shelby, she just walked next to her, her dark eyes studying Shelby's clouded ones. "I can't live like this." Shelby said after a while. "I can't keep secrets from you." Shelby nodded her head as if making some sort of decision. "I have to tell someone about this, and I don't think Scott wants to hear it." She looked straight ahead, seeing how far Juliet and Scott were in front of them. After lunch the order had changed. Peter and Sophie took the rear, right behind Auggie and Ezra. Jessica and David were being followed by Scott and Juliet. Which left Shelby and Daisy in the middle. Again. She didn't want to chance Scott hearing her, so she slowed down a tad. Careful not to get to close to the two behind her either.   
  
"When the cops found me, I wasn't alone." She prepared herself for some rude comment from Daisy. That comment never came. "I was hanging out with one of Patty's friends. I guess he became my friend after three months hanging out, but you know what I mean." She was almost babbling, and had to try as hard as she could to focus on both the story, and their path. "His name was Alex. Alex Wallace. Whenever Patty and I came up short for rent or something, he would be there to pick up the tab. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't obnoxious or anything, he was just always there." Daisy helped her over a fallen tree and she kept going. "He used to call me Slate. Said I was reinforced concrete on the streets. I could go out at night and do what I had to, then by day I could be a completely different person. He was the one who took care of me after Patty..."  
  
Daisy held onto her friend for a few brief minutes, allowing everyone to pass them. Amazingly, no one stopped and asked them if they needed help. They simply let her cry. "After Patty OD'd." Daisy finished for her. She didn't push Shelby any more. She just let her get it out.  
  
"Yeah." Shelby managed a meek smile when they began walking again. "He got me a new apartment, covered the rent, and paid for my food. I was so alone then, Patty had just died, and I was scared to death that they would find me." Wiping the tears from her eyes, she willed herself to stop crying. "The night before they found me, I had had a bad dream. About Walt. He found me, and I told him everything. About my life, why I ran, Walt. I just had to get it out, and he was the first one I EVER told about it." She started to sob again. Her words being covered by coughs and cries.   
  
Daisy didn't know what to say. She had never seen this side of Shelby before. On some level, she understood. On another, she was absolutely horrified. "Is that why you didn't want to tell Scott?" She asked soothingly. Because of how Alex reacted?"  
  
"No." Alex's reaction came to her mind. He was so calm about it. He even offered to climb into bed with her and hold her until she slept. "He understood."   
  
  
Juliet turned back and looked at Shelby. "Why don't you go to her?" She asked gently. "She needs you."  
  
Folowing Juliet's gaze over to Shelby and Daisy, his mind willing himself to remain calm. He wanted to be there for her, she just wouldn't let him. He knew what he had to do. He shifted his gaze directly in front of them and never looked back. "She doesn't need me anymore." He said solomnly. "She has Auggie and Daisy to take care of her." 


	6. Chapter 6 (Auggie clashes with Scott, an...

~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace.~   
  
*From now on, I'm going to put (~) around dreams.   
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
"What is that supposed to mean?" Auggie stopped and glared at Scott. The two had ignored each other when at all humanly possible. Both of them were blaming the other for something that neither was to be blamed for. At lunch they worked togeather without speaking. On the trails it was a little easier the just simply walked with two different people, but now that they both had seen Shelby cry. I was as natural to them as breathing to put their guard up.   
  
Scott didn't want to get into it with Auggie where Peter could get them for fighting. "Nothing, Aug, just that she prefers you and Daisy to me." He was telling the truth, but the point he'd forgotten was that he had never really tried to talk to Shelby. "Just let it go man. It's not important." Scott sped up to catch David and Jess.   
  
"Meat's walking on my last nerve." Auggie warned Ezra and Juliet, as he turned to make sure Dasiy was still with Shelby. He knew that Scott was worried about her. He was too. He just didn't see the need to turn his back on her just because she didn't want to talk to him at that moment. Shelby would have more than enough time to talk to everyone when they got up to the cabin.   
  
"He's just scared." Juliet tried to smooth things out between Auggie and Scott as best she could. It didn't seem to matter that Auggie had been paying more attention to Shelby in the past few days, or that Scott had barely said five words to Shelby since he got back.   
  
Ezra had enough sense to stay out of it. He knew that the more you let Auggie talk, the more angry Auggie got. Helping Auggie beat Scott up sounded like a good idea to him, though. He was the source of Shleby's pain. Not all of it, but at least some.   
  
  
Alex wandered into the hotel lounge. He had about half an hour to kill before he had to head back up to the suite to see his father to head to the meeting. As he walked into the finely decoreated room and headed up to the bar to order himself a beer, he spotted Martin Barringer. He had only met the man once before, and he thought it would be a great idea to meet him again to get his views on the new policy's that his father was wanting to administer in the business. Grabbing his beer off of the counter and charging it to his room, he walked over to the table where Martin sat amoung the papers.   
  
Martin scribbed something down on his legal pad and waved for Alex to join him. "All I ask is that Peter call me when he gets back with the kids." There was silance. "Thank you. I'll have my cell phone turned on, he can call me day or night." Silance again, and Martin pushed to stop button on his cell phone. "Damn it!" He took a quick sip of his martini and shoved the phone into his brief case.  
  
Alex didn't know what to say. "Another meeting?"  
  
"Nothing like that at all." Martin began to clean up his papers and putting them into folders. "The principal at Scott's school sent them on a five day feild trip, and I won't be able to go up and visit them until at least Saturday." Once the area was clean, he drained his glass and signaled for another. "I kinda wanted to visit him again, and meet all his friends." He waited a beat. "Your father finally let you loose?"  
  
Alex didn't reall feel like answering any of Martin's questions, so he decided to change the subject. "What's your son like?" He took a few swigs of his beer and leaned his elbow on the table. "From what Dad tells me, he's like this big football hero. Is that the kind of school you sent him to?" He looked up at Martin, trying to keep his face innocent.  
  
Martin shifted uncomfertably after Alex got through with his questions. "Your father raised you to be just like him didn't he?" He asked chuckling. He reached into his wallet for the folded picture of Scott and his friends that he had managed to sneak out of Scott's bags. With his son returning to Horizon, he wanted to remeber Scott like he had seen him with his friends. Happy. He wondered for a second why Scott ever wanted to leave Horizon. "Mount Horizon is a school to help troubled teens. Scott....had some problems with drugs in the past, and my ex-wife, Elaine, and I thought that Horizon was the best place for him to be.He's been doing better since he got there." The picture slid across to Alex's side of the table. "He's even got himself a great girl now. She's really helped him deal with this stuff. That's her to the right of him in the middle."  
  
Alex's eyes grazed over the picture. He saw the tall blonde boy and presumed that that was Scott. He looked like he belonged on the cover of some magizine. He surely didn't look troubled. He was standing next to a girl that looked vaguely fimilar. Then he did a double take. That girl was....."Shelby?" He almost dropped his beer. The girl standing to the right of Scott was unmistakeably Shelby. Her blonde hair was a little shorter now, cut right below her shoulders, and her clothes were nothing like the style he'd seen her wear on the streets. She looked so real, so happy to be in the picture....So different then she had when he'd last seen her. He knew right there that he had found his soulmate, and he would stop at nothing until he had her again. "Who..." He had to let the picture drop to her the table before he tried to speak again. Once Alex regained his composure, he looked back up at Martin. "What's her name?"  
  
Martin looked at the back of the picture. "Shelby Merrick." He read machincally. "She's not exactly my first choice for my son, but she helpd him see that what happened to him wasn't his fault, so I guess she couldn't be that bad." Martin looked at the watch that he had bought to replace the one that Elaine had given him. "It's almost time for the meeting." He observed Alex's reaction.   
  
"You go ahead." Alex stood and took his bottle over to the bar to think. "I'll be ther a little late." Once he was sure that Martin was gone, he pulled out his cell phone and a pen. Dailing up his offices number, he quietly waited until Connie answered. "Conns can you find me the number to a school called Mount Horizon High? It's a little place up in Washington."He waited as Connie typed.  
  
"Sure thing boss." Connie typed a few more keys and a number came up. "You can reach Peter Scarburrow at six one six." She waited until he stopped writing. "Five five five, six nine eight nine." She typed in a few keys and waited. "Can I ask you why you wanted to know?"  
  
"Depends." He tucked the piece of paper into his pocket. "How good are you diplomacy skills?" He needed someone that could find out all they could on why Shelby was there. He thought for a second. "I need you to go through police reports and what not to find everything you can on a girlnamed Shelby Merrick." He waited until she was typing again. Then something came to him. "You can also try Slate Harding. Or any combination of the two." The keys never stopped tapping.  
  
Connie pulled up a picture of Shelby. "It says here that she was found on the streets a few weeks after her sixteenth birthday. She plead to her father to help her, but when he couldn't, she negotiated her way into a school called Horizon. Her mother drove her up three weeks after her arrest." Something inside of her brain clicked, and she searched further into the database. "She was arrested three times prior under the name Slate Harding, along side of Patricia Marks for prostituiton. All three times she was bailed out by....."  
  
He knew what she had just seen. Now there was no way he could hide this from her. "By me, Conn. She was bailed out by me."  



	7. Chapter 7 (Alex talks to Jeff, and Shelb...

~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace, his father and his secretary Connie.~   
  
*From now on, I'm going to put (~) around dreams.   
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
"By me, Conn. She was bailed out by me." He let the phone rest on his shoulder as he asked for another beer. He knew that he should have told her about this sooner. That she would come across his name, but he just didn't think of it. He had become accustomed to ordering her around and not asking any questions. Aparently he forgot that the no questions asked policy that he instilled in her didn't apply to stupid requests. "Don't give me any crap Connie, I know this girl."   
  
"It has nothing to do with you knowing her, What if your father finds out?" Connie printed out the rap sheet and started up the fax machine. "What do you want me to do with the reports on Shelby and Slate? I could fax them up, or I could just send them up by messenger?" She put the forms in order and pulled the number of the private dective. "I'll go ahead and call the guy you wanted to look into Shelby. I could have him compile a list of things he could find out about her."  
  
Alex could detect a bit of edge in her voice. "Yeah, thanks Connie. Go ahead and messenger all the stuff up to me. I want it before the time I go to bed tonight." He said his good-byes and hung up the phone. Then he called his father and told him he wasn't feeling really well. After making sure his father excused him from the meeting, he went back up to his suite and laid down on the couch in the living room. Then he pulled the number of Horizon High out of his jacket pocket. He quickly dailed the number and waited for an answer.  
  
"Mount Horizon High School, Jeff speaking." Jeff passed a file over the counter to a new intern. He turned and took another file out of the drawer and looked it over.  
  
"Yes, I'd like to speak to Peter Scarborrow?" Alex kept his voice level. He had negotiated plenty of deals in that tone of voice. That was the voice that he used when he posted Shelby and Patty's bail. He needed to keep a level head with these people if he had any hope of seeing Shelby again. He just had to. "I need to speak with him about one of his students."  
  
"Peter's out on Quest right now," Jeff held the phone with one shoulder and nodded over to the admit building. Horizon was a mad house when Peter wasn't around. "Is there anything I can help you with?"  
  
"That depends..." Alex rolled over and pulled his brief case out from under the bed. "Do you know where I can find Shelby Merrick?" He noticed the change in Jeff's breathing. "I'm a friend of the family." He thumbed through his files. "I'd like to talk to her."  
  
Jeff didn't know what to say. "She's one of the students that's out on Quest with Peter. They should be back on Friday though. If you want I could call his cell phone and tell him you'd like to talk to him. Should I tell him what it's about?"  
  
"Sure. Why not?" Alex waited a second. "Do you have anything to write with so I can give you the number to where he could reach me?"  
  
"Wait a second." Jeff reached over and grabbed a pen off of Sophie's desk. "Go ahead."  
  
"Seven eight one." He paused. "Five three three, six four seven nine." He waited until he was sure Jeff stopped writing. "And the name is Alexander Wallace."  
  
  
  
They were in sight of the cabin when Peter got the call. He was walking next to Shelby when his cell phone rang. The group halted when he reached in to pick it up. "Peter Scarborrow." He waited for a second. "What did he want?" Jeff said a few more things. "Okay what was his number?" Peter reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen. "Seven eight one, five three three, six four seven nine." He stopped writing and looked over at Shelby. "Yeah thank you, Jeff." He turned his phone off and handed it to Shelby. "You had a call in the office."   
  
Shelby just stared at him. "Who was it?" Daisy came up behind her and put her hands on Shelby's shoulders. Peter just looked at her. "Peter, who was it?"  
  
"Some guy named Alex Wallace." He watched as Shelby almost fell over. It took Daisy and Auggie to hold her up. "Does that name mean something to you?"  
  
Daisy took the cell phone out of her hand so she wouldn't drop it. "Yeah, you could say that." 


	8. Chapter 8 (Daisy tells Scott about a pie...

~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace, his father and his secretary Connie.~   
  
*From now on, I'm going to put (~) around dreams.   
*Chelsey, I don't know what you did to them, but I haven't gotten any complaining reviews since your post. Feel free to go to the Directory and get my E-mail addy. I'd like to hear some of your ideas for my story.  
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
"David, Ezra, help her over to the couch." Sophie called after she turned on some of the lights in the cabin. The boys had carried her from the place where she had collasped. They hadn't take long. Peter carried her first. Then Auggie. After Auggie had gotten tired, David and Ezra had taken turns. "Auggie get some pillows out of the other room, and Juliet, get some bandages out of Auggie's pack." Everyone was scurring around, and Daisy stayed glued to her side. She didn't even budge when Sophie went to push her out of the way to get to Shelby's arm.  
  
"Her arm's fine." Daisy said shortly. "The problem is in her heart." Neither Peter nor Sophie could hear her. Both of them were working to figure out what was wrong with Shelby. Daisy gave up after Shelby closed her eyes. She followed Scott outside onto the porch. "She'll be okay." She told him akwardly. She knew that she should be offering more comfort. There were no words of comfort that Daisy could offer that could take any of the pain away from him. He would hold onto it for dear life if it would mean he could hold onto a piece of her too. That was the problem with all of the Cliffhangers, "We all try so hard to hold on."   
  
Daisy spoke softly, as if she were only talking to herself. Scott could hear the pain in her voice. He could see the unshed tears in her eyes. He knew that she wasn't only crying for Shelby. She was crying for all of them; Jess, Juliet, David. She was crying for the ones who didn't know, and the ones who had lost their way. "It's the one thing we know how to do when we're falling." Scott glanced over his shoulder and into the cabin, where Auggie and Jessica stood next to a perplexed Peter. "We can't hold onto cliffs until we're ready to fall from mountains." Both of them just sat there for a few moments. It was almost like they were two sides of a coin. 'Shelby's coin.' Daisy joked weakly. 'And Scott doesn't know about the third side.' She watched his face every few seconds. The way his eyes closed for moments at a time to block his own tears. His hands never left his knees. It was as if he knew that there was something Shelby wasn't telling him, and it was killing him. After what seemed like forever, Scott turned to Daisy. "Who's Alex?" He asked sharply.  
  
  
Alex had excused himself from dinner early, pleading that the plane ride had caught up to him. The other board members understood, so his father had let him go. On his way out of the hotel dining hall though, he saw a man at the front desk. He was talking to one of the bellhops and passing an envelope. Alex walked bruskly over to the front esk and looked at the manager. "I'm here to check my mail." He said harshly. "Suite three sixteen, under the name Alexander Wallace." The messenger looked him over and handed him the packet. "Do I need to sign for this?" The messenger just shook his head and walked off. He turned to the manager. "Any other messages?"  
  
Connie Marks took some reports out of her brief case and haned them to her boss from the other side of the desk. He didn't know that she was going to come up, but she had to make sure the file got to him safely. So she had her driver take it in while she was taking her bags out of the car. Instead of the suits she was used to wearing, she had had her stylist pick out some clothes that she could take with her to Agnes that wouldn't hamper her ability to perform her duties as his secretary. "These are all from your father. He wanted you to study up before the next meeting tomarrow morning after breakfast. He wants to keep Martin busy until Thursday with meetings and brunches." She tugged at the turtleneck that she had thrown on in the limo. "Jerry called the office while you were on the plane, and he said something about locating the account that Patty set up for her and Slate?" She gave him an annoyed look. "I hope your not going to do anything stupid."   
  
Alex walked to the elevator, Connie in tow. "How much did he say was in it?" He pushed the button to his floor and looked over the package that Connie had brought to him concerning Shelby. Connie was going over her notes. "Conn?"  
  
She checked a list and sighed. "Almost thirteen thousand. Those girls must have been really good at what they did to collect that much in six months.'  
  
"Not all of it was combined." He glanced over a picture of Shelby and Patty that the cops had taken before a bust. "Patty had been on the streets a few more years then Shelby. Most of it was hers." The elevator dinged and he walked down the hall to his suite. "Patty kept a close watch on her funds. She wanted to leave Shelby enough to get gone on in case there was trouble." Patty always took care of Shelby.' He added to himself as Connie unlocked the door. He set the reports on the coffee table and reached for a beer out of the fridge. "The night before she died I made a promise to Patty. A promise that I didn't keep." He watched as Connie turned to him and set her suitcase on the couch. "I promised that Shelby would never have to home. I told her that I would take care of Shelby, and that's what I'm gonna do."  
  
  
  
"So he wasn't just one of the guys who.....?" Scott couldn't believe the story that Daisy told him. Something about Alex made Scott want to thank him for helping Shelby, but another part, made Scott want to punch his lights out. "He didn't use her?"  
  
Daisy admired how calm Scott had stayed through the entire tale. "Aparently he was one of Patty's first friends on the streets. Shelby said that he took care of her after Patty od'd. He was always there to post bail when they were....you know." The night had fallen, and the only sounds there were came from inside where Peter and Sophie still bustling over Shelby before they left the kids on their own for the night. They were going to travel until about nine then stop and make camp. They wanted to get back to the lodge before noon the next morning so they could get the campus ready for parents week again. Horizon had two every year. "He was taking care of her when the cops found her."   
  
Before anything else could be said, Auggie came out for Daisy. "Peter and Sophie are making they're good-byes and they wanted you in here." He said nothing to Scott, which was all well with him. To Auggie, Scott was as big of an enemy as the guy that called looking for Shelby. He helped Daisy up and led her into the house.  
  
"I wrote down Sophie's cell phone number and all the emergancy ones. They're net to the first aid kit on the counter." He handed Shelby his cell phone and a piece of paper. "I don't know what you want to do about Alex, but I think it would be wise to at least talk to him. Jeff said he was concerned about you. If you need to talk, we have the radio set up in the corner, as well as the cell phone. We should reach Horizon by noon at the latest. The clue is in the locked box in the corner." He pointed to the corner that the radio was in. Sitting on top of the radio was a safe with a dail lock. "We'll radio the combination when we reach Horizon." He kissed Shelby on top of the head and pulled Juliet close to him. "Take care of her." He whispered to Daiy when it was her turn to be hugged. She just nodded. "In that case...we're off." He and Sophie were out the door before anyone could say anything else.   
  
  
"I'm making some tea." Juliet announced to the group after they were sure that Peter and Sophie were out of range. She had set about cleaning up the cabin until then. "Shleby do you want anything in yours?"  
  
Shelby looked up from the phone and stared at Juliet for a second. Then her gaze shifted to Daisy. "I think some arsnic might help her." David called from his side of the room. He had been helping Scott and Jess unload everyone's packs and put them into drawers. He took Shelby's medication out of his pack and tossed the bottle to Ezra. "Just make sure she has some of these with it Princess, and I'm sure she'll be fine."  
  
Shelby threw a glance over at David. "You're taking my names." She snapped at the dark haired boy. "I worked hard to come up with them." Tossing a small round pillow at his head she started to pout. "You're a smart boy Davey. Come up with your own." She stood and walked out of the cabin, taking the cell phone with her to the bottom step of the porch. She just kept staring at it.  



	9. Chapter 9 (Shelby calls an old friend).

~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace, his father and his secretary Connie.~   
  
*From now on, I'm going to put (~) around dreams.   
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
"The longer you concentrate, the less likely it is to ring." Scott said so matter-of-factly. He took a seat next to Shelby, knowning all too well that he was within striking distance. "I don't think Jeff disclosed Peter's cell number to this guy." Scott didn't want to push Shelby into telling him about Alex. Nor did he want to tell Shelby that Daisy had already told him the little that he knew. He saw the look of confusion spread over her face and he pulled her to him. He was amazed of how light she was. "Anything you want to talk about?"  
  
Shleby took the phone off the step next to her and smiled. "Nothing I want to tell to you." She hugged him for a second. Then stood and walked into the house.  
  
Pale, thin fingers glided over the small numbers easily. She was dialing Patty's old number. The phone rang a fewe times before a snoty female voice answered. Her voice was calm and collected, as if she were still sixteen and lying in the livingroom waiting for Patty to come back with with the take-out. "I need to speak to Alex." Shelby said bluntly. She didn't care how she sounded to the lady, or how she must have looked to Auggie and Juliet. They both had been watching her like a hawk since she came inside. Maybe they thought she would break. There was a rustle of papers, a distinct male voice, then the woman told her that he was unavailable to recieve calls. "I know he's there. I heard him." Shelby hoisted herself onto the white counter and pulled her legs up in front of her, cuddling her knees. "Tell him it's a friend of Pattricia Anansie's." She waited a beat. "Tell him it's Slate Harding."  
  
*Sorry it's so short. I wanted to have a little cliffhanger.* 


	10. Chapter 10 (Alex gets proof that he foun...

~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace, his father and his secretary Connie.~   
  
*From now on, I'm going to put (~) around dreams.   
*And I'd like to ask Jen NOT to threaten me again. I'll get them up when I get them up  
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
The phone was passed almost immediately. 'I guess I said the secret words.' She joked to herself. She could hear Alex's breathing before he even said a word. Alex on the otehr hand was debating whether or not the girl he was talking to would in fact BE Shelby. There were at least three other girls in the Patty's building who knew his number and that he was trying to locate Shelby. Three or more that knew that Slate hung on the same circut as Patty. It coulod literally be anyone. "How do I know you're the real Slate Harding?" He asked quickly. "There were at least four other girls in the building who called themselves Slate when it was convient for them."  
  
Shelby glanced around the spotless kitchen. Juliet had done her job cleaning well. "I'm the only one who wouldn't sleep with you." She said seriously. She knew she would have to come up with something better than that, she had to think of things that only Patty and Alex knew. Then it hit her. "Eight forty-nine p.m." She said quickly, making sure no one was listening to her conversation. The numbers didn't click in Alex's mind. "Shelby Merrick was taken into custody and returned to her mother's care at eight forty-nine. On a Wednesday. She went without a fight. Her only request was a good-bye kiss from the man that she thought knew her best." She waited for all the information to sink in. "No tounge." Alex laughed nervously on the other end. "Do you need any more?"  
  
"Not really, Slate," Alex laid the files out on his bed. "I think you are who you say you are. No one else on Earth could tell me that Slate's last request was a kiss from her best friends supplier." To tell the truth, Alex vaguely remembered the memory himself. She had been so strong during that time. "I do however have one more question to insure that you are who you say you are..." He lloked over one of his pictures of the two of them. "What was the only noticably mark on Patty's body when she died? What did the coroner have to show her parents when they came to ID the body?"  
  
Shelby actually had to think about his question. "Patty had TWO marks when they found her body." She walked herself through the night she found her firend. "The scar on her back from your cigarette on my birthday. She had gotten thrashed and started to try to trash the apartment, but you stopped her and she ran into the ash tray on her way down to the floor.....Then there was the K that Patty had carved into her ankle her first few weeks on the streets. It stood for two things. One: she wasn't brave enough for a tatoo, and the K was for her middle name, Kathrine. Two: Her mother's name was Kathrine. She kicked Patty out of the house when she was twelve to survive on her own. Patty never forgot that." She called up a picture of Patty in her mind and something hit her. "But your forgetting what you of all people should know. Patty was never ID'd. She was creamated as Jane Doe." Her heart was pounding. She'd passed the test.  
  
There was a long pause. It was if he didn't know what to say to her. He finally had what he wanted, but it wasn't enough. He needed more, but of what he didn't know. "Shelby?" He asked in disbelief. He wasn't even sure that he said it. Connie was lounging on the couch watching him intently. She didn't know what reaction to expect, but she was sure this wasn't it. "Where are you?"   
  
"Stupid question seeing as though you're the one who tried to contact me." Something hard hit her arm, and she watched her bottle of medication fal onto the floor. There waas a note attached from David that read: TAKE THREE OF ME! Shelby laughed as she took three pills out and swallowed them with a few sips of the tea the Juliet had set on the counter for her. "I'm at this great school the assistant DA found for me. It puts me out in the wilderness with all sorts of other weirdo's and it forces me to talk about my problems. Half the time I feel like I'm sitting in Dective Jop's interrigation room." She looked over to Dasiy, who was watching her intently. "Other than that I'm perfectly fine. Haven't tried to kill myself in AT LEAST twenty-four hours." Neither one knew whether or not she was joking. Shelby never tried to look at the bright side of things, so that was the only conclusion.   
  
"Can you get visitors?"   
  
Shelby had to hold onto the counter to keep the room from spinning. "You want to come visit me?" She remembered his promise to Patty. 'Maybe he's trying to make good on his promises.' A small voice told her in the back of her brain. "You'd actually come up here, to the middle of nowhere in weather that doesn't even resemble the stuff you're used to in Santa Monica, to visit a girl you haven't seen in what three years? And they call me twisted."   
  
'There's my girl.' He thought nodding his head. 'She never see'd things at face value. There always has to be some sort of hidden agenda.' "Yeah, well an asociate of my dad's has a kid up there, and he wanted to come visit. My father of course wants him to be a part of the meetings that are going to be held that week. So, I opted to come with him." He hadn't yet told her that it was her boyfriend's father, or even the fact that he was aware of her boyfriend. Martin had asked for company at breakfast. He knew a few good bed and breakfasts up there that they could stay in. "That is if you want me to come up"  
  
"Sure." 


	11. Chapter 11 (David proves he's not such a...

~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace, his father and his secretary Connie.~   
  
*From now on, I'm going to put (~) around dreams.   
*This chapter should make a lot of people happy. It's not why I wrote it of course, it simply needed to be written. I also make no guarentees that this is a happily ever after story either.  
  
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
Shelby kept her voice calm. She refused her emotions to come into the conversation. "I have no problem with it. Last time I had a visitor was....Way too damn long for me to remember." She slid off of the counter and took an apple out of the cupboard. "You can call Jeff at the school tomarrow morning and set something up." She waited a moment. "I have to go. Bye Alex." She hung up the phone and took a bite out of her apple. She felt alive for the first time in months. Alex coming to visit was just what she needed to boost her spirits. After hanging up the phone, she turned to see where Scott had ended up.   
  
"Who you looking for?" David asked annoyed. "Maybe I can help." He was deliberately trying to get Shelby to try to be her old self again. If she took the bait, she was back. "He threw his arm around her shoulder as she went to take another bite of the apple.  
  
"You want to help me?" Shelby put on her innocent face. She knew that David was buying at least part of what she was telling him. "You might want to detach yourself from me," her face changed and she whirled on him. "Before the next thing I cut isn't an arm." She shrugged his arm off of her and shoved the green apple in his face. "Step-off Newbie. You learned once that you didn't want to play with me." She watched as the look of astonishment on David's face turned to a large smile.  
  
"We have a winner!" David shouted at the group. He turned and bowed to the room as if he were reaping in applause. "And for my next trick..." He turned to Shelby and she marched over to Scott. Taking him by the hand, she lead him outside.   
  
Once the door was closed firmly, she whirled on him. "What would you do if I did something completely not me?" She asked giving him very poor warning as to what was to come for him. She grabbed his face in her hands, and without listening to the voice in her head that told her it was wrong, she kissed him with all her being. It took a few minutes for them to seperate. Scott was out of breath and amazed at what had just happened. He thought he was dreaming. Shelby did not just kiss him. "What's the matter Cowboy?"   
  
He didn't know how to respond, so he just went with his instinct. Slowly, and ever so delicately he placed his hands on either side of Shelby's face. He brushed a strand of hair off of her face and pulled her lips up to meet his. With all of his months with Elaine, he had never had this much desire to be with one person. The kiss lasted for what seemed like hours, then he felt Shelby pull away. "Wha-"  
  
He took a step closer, as if to pull her back into the kiss. "Hold it there Cowboy." Shelby didn't want to do what she had conviced herself she had to. It was second nature to her to run away from her problems. The bigger one at the time though, was Scott wasn't a problem. "We need to talk before anything else happens." She saw the look of confusion spread onto Scott's features. "I need to tell you about Alex."  
  
That sombered up the mood real quick. "What's there to tell?"  
  
"He's gonna come visit me when we get back, and I want you to know," She saw him tense. "There was nothing between us. EVER." Shelby got Scott to calm down a little. "He's coming to make sure I'm okay. THAT'S ALL. A few days before Patty died, she made him promise to take care of me if anything happened." Shelby kept replaying the scene in her head. She liked the promise less than Scott must have, but she knew it was for the best. At the time, Alex had everything that Shelby needed to servive. Everything she wanted. "I never thought he would turn up, much less want to see me." Scott looked down at the ground, but Shelby wouldn't let him do it long. "You're not going to pretend you don't have any feelings." She told him sternly, forcing him to look at her. "I know that I didn't do this before you left, but Sophie and Jess have taught me to listen and answer others questions....Ask me anything." She was setting herself for pain, but Scott meant more to her than that.  
  
"Do you really want to answer them?"   
  
"I told you I did." She couldn't believe she was doing this. "Ask away."  
  
  
  



	12. Chapter 12 (You guys wanted a long one, ...

~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace, his father and his secretary Connie.~   
~The song I put in here isn't mine either. It belongs to LeAnne Rimes.~  
  
*The song is outlined in (*) And memories are still in (~)   
*I warned you about the Happily Ever After stuff. I'm going along with the phrase "it's gonna get worse before it gets better."   
  
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
Time passed quickly with the two on the porch. As for the rest of them, time passed a little slower.....  
  
"Aug? Do you have any......" David thought for a moment, looking around the room. "Any.......two's?"  
  
Daisy laughed and threw a pillow at David. "I cleaned out all the two's remember? They're in MY stack." The group had been playing Go Fish for about half an hour now. Daisy had most of the cards, but everyone else were still dead set on beating her.Daisy was glad that they could do something as dumb as playing Go Fish. It served two purposes. One was that the group needed to be young again, without any problems, and two, if everyone were trying to find who had all the five's they wouldn't be paying attention to the fact that Shelby and Scott weren't back yet. Daisy took Davids cards out of his hand and looked at them. "And all you have are seven's. Why the hell do you want a two anyway?"  
  
David just shrugged. "I have NO idea. I just wanted a two."  
  
The front door opened and Scott walked in stunned. Shelby came in after him and went straight into the girls' room. No one on the floor knew what to make of the scene. After watching helplessly as Shelby slammed the door, Scott plopped himself on the couch to wallow in his misery.   
  
Auggie shifted his gaze from the door to Scott to Daisy. The rest of the group had already made themselves busy bustling around the cabin making dinner and helping each other put the games that Peter had bought them away. Auggie knew what he and Daisy had to do. He stood and helped Daisy off the floor. "I'll take Shelby if you want Meat?" He said quietly. He knew that she wanted to talk to Shelby, but he wanted to make it look like he was giving her a choice.  
  
"Can I have Shelby?" Daisy saw how hurt Scott was, and she wasn't suffeciently matched if his temper got the best of him. "Health reasons," she offered Auggie a smile. "If he goes psycho, I think you can hold him better than I could." She stiffled a laugh and headed into the dark room that Shelby had retreated into. Auggie just smiled as he plopped himself on the couch next to a distraught Scott.  
  
  
Daisy noticed the knife the second she entered the room. Shelby was sitting with her back to the door, and her silver knife in her right hand. She didn't know what to do. "Shell?" Shelby flinched and dropped the knife. "Don't pick it up Shell." Daisy was walking steadily over to Shelby's bunk. Dropping herself onto the bed, Daisy looked up into Shelby's eyes. "Just tell me what happened."  
  
Shelby's form shook a few times, and her hands came up to guard her face. "He doesn't want me." She huffed as Daisy pulled her into her head into her lap. "I told him to ask me anything, and this time it wasn't that I wasn't ready for the questions, he wasn't ready for the answers." She sobbed a few more times as Daisy just sat there. She could just tell Shelby that everything was going to be all right. Both of them knew better than than. The frightened girl in her arms wasn't just the outer shell of Shelby Merrick. It had mixed with the core, Shelby's soul to create this girl. She was no longer a harsh immitation of the girl she was on the streets, nor was she the delicate little girl that Walt had destroyed. This girl was broken and she kept lifting herself back up. Dasiy wasn't sure she could fix the damage of Scott rejecting Shelby this time. She just hoped that Auggie could talk to Scott about this. Or maybe beat some sense into him.  
  
  
  
  
In the kitchen, Juliet found a boom box and a few CDs. Thumbing threw them, she reached into Shelby's drawer for some of hers. "Hey Ezra, pick a CD."   
  
Ezra looked through all of the CDs that were availiable and pulled out the Coyote Ugly soundtrack. Shoving it into the CD player, He turned to song number two. After a second, LeAnne Rimes flooded the room. The song was one that Shelby used to put into her CD player when they were staying at Peter's over the summer. "Please Remember." He whispered to the door that seperated Shelby and Daisy from the rest of the world.  
  
  
*Time.   
Sometimes the time just slips away.   
And your left with yesterday,  
Left with the memories.  
I.  
I'll always think of you and smile,  
And be happy for the time I had you with me.*  
  
  
~Ezra watched Shelby unpack her things into Peter's guest room. They were the only two kids from Horizon that weren't leaveing for the summer, and Peter had opted for them to stay with him and Sophie. Shelby looked so placid after she had watched Scott leave. The next few days after the Morp, Shelby seemed to be going through the motions of her life without really living it. And to watch her pack was just killing him. She missed Scott so much it wasn't funny. At the bottom of her pack, Shelby located a picture of her and Scott at the lunch table. Juliet had taken it the week before the Morp, and they all thought Shleby needed it more than Kat did. Shleby saw the picture and stopped. The tears came running down her cheeks, and seh dropped to the floor. Ezra was at her side in an instant, holding her until her tears stopped~  
  
  
Shelby sat up and listened to the words to the song that Ezra had put on. They seemed so fitting now. Now that Scott wanted nothing to do with her. The song brought back so many things that Shelby would just as soon as forget. The memories were painful, but Shelby had become accustomed to the pain. She calmed down a bit, and just let Daisy hold her while the memories swept over her like rain.  
  
  
*Though we go our seperate ways....  
I won't forget, so don't forget,  
The memories we made.*  
  
  
~Shelby looked deep into Scott's eyes and she could feel her pulse quicken. She had forgiven him for not telling her sooner that he was leaving. At least she had convinced herself she had. 'I'm okay.' She kept telling herself. 'Scott will come visit. You know he'll still be a part of your life.'   
  
The entire group stood around them. Bidding Scott farewell, and making sure he knew when he was allowed to call and come to visit. The only person Scott cared about was the person in front of him. He couldn't hold his feelings any longer, and he swept her into his arms. Shelby looked so fragile against him. "It'll be okay, Shell." He whispered into her hair. "It's not the end of the world." He knew how bad that sounded, but he needed her to know that he was till there for her.  
  
Shelby looked over at Peter and Sophie. She didn't care how long she was on shuns for, she needed to kiss him. The kiss was pasisonate, and laced with fear and uncertianty. She didn't want to let go of him. Saying good-bye was killing her. "Please remember me?" She asked him hopefully.~  
  
  
*Please Remember. Please Remember.  
I was there for you and you were there for me  
Please Remember, our time togeather.  
The time was yours and mine and we were wild and free.  
Please remember. Please remember....me.*  
  
  
Scott caught the last phrase of the song and held onto it. Those were Shelby's last words when he left Horizon the second time. Those were the words that kept him awake at night. He loved her more than anything on the Earth, and he had hurt her more deeply than anyone could ever imagine. He didn't know how he was going to get her back, now that Alex was coming to town. Everything she had told him about Alex was like a punch in the gut. He didn't even want to think about all the things Alex had access to when Shelby was living with him. She had told him everything without him having to ask. Then when Shelby told him about the kiss.....That was the one thing Scott couldn't handle.  
  
  
*Good-bye.  
There's just no sadder word to say.   
And it's sad to walk away,  
With just the memory. *  
  
  
Alex sat alone in his hotel room, replaying the song in his CD player. He tried to remember Shelby as she was, but he couldn't do it. The only image that would come to his head was the one of Shelby when the police took her away. She was deadly calm and her head never looked down. He had kissed her that day. The first kiss that set his mind in motion. He had always cared about Shelby, he knew that he always will.  
  
  
*Who's to know what might have been?  
If we leave behind the life and time,  
We'll never know again.*  
  
  
~Shelby laid on her bed at Peter's with her journal in front of her. She wrote in it everyday now. She felt so isolated from everyone now that Scott was gone. She had sent Jess to visit they're father for the holiday. She didn't want to see her father after what he did to her. True, he wasn't the one that abused her, but he refused to help her when she ran. He refused to take her calls when she was arrested before she was sent back to the same house as Walt. He wouldn't even open her letters after she had gotten to Horizon. Scott had been the one that made all that pain bareable. Scott had a way to make her forget everything, and he didn't need sex for him to help her. That pain was back now that Scott wasn't there. It pounded on her head and her heart like a steel drum.   
  
Ezra tapped lightly on the door and then he watched her turn. "Peter wanted you to know that dinner would be ready in half an hour." He sat down on the bed and pick up the fuzzy bear that Kat had sent her. The bear that she had attectionatly called Scott. Missing him was tearing her apart, and Ezra wasn't the only one who could see it. Shelby stared at him until he put the bear down next to her. "You wanna talk about it?" He asked her gently.  
  
She nodded gently, laying her journal on the nightstand. "Only if you want to listen." Everyone at Horizon would have listened to Shelby's problem, but she only wanted to talk with those that would take her seriously. "I only want to talk to someone that actually wants to listen." She told him, suddenly feeling small.  
  
"I'll listen." Ezra pulled her into his lap an kissed her on the top of her head. Shelby was a sister to him. He wanted to help her because she had no one else. "I'll listen." That's how they sat for most of the night. Ezra listening while Shelby told her tale.~  
  
  
*Please remember. Please remember.  
I was there for you and you were there for me.  
And remember. Please remember......Me.  
  
  
Daisy sat with Shelby until she fell asleep. Then she sat with her throughout most of the night. Juliet had come in there once or twice. To make sure Shelby was okay, and to get Daisy and extra pillow and bring her a few snacks. Daisy refused drinks however. She didn't want to wake Shelby just so she could go to the restroom. That was the true test of friendship, staying with your friend through all of it. Being there when the nightmares came. Daisy smiled to herself. That was where Scott had failed. Scott couldn't be there 'just because' Shelby needed him. He had always been catered to as the football hero. He didn't know how to handle someone elses pain. Even after he had been told what it was like for her on the streets, he had never been prepared to ask what he was thinking. Daisy felt lucky hat she didn't have to ask. Shelby just told her.   
  
Scott watched as Juliet curled up in Auggie's lap to fall asleep. He never knew how empty one could feel just watching two people in love. Remembering how he felt lying in his bed back at Peter's house, thinking about holding Shelby. Never once did he think that she would finally cave and tell him about her past. Never once did he pretend that he only loved Shelby as long as he didn't know what Walt had driven her to. When he was at home that was what he had forgotten. He had remembered the parts of Shelby that were convienent for him to keep going day after day, but he had forgotten the most improtant thing. He had forgotten what made Shelby Shelby. That was the thing he should have remembered.  
  
  
*Please remember. Please remember.  
I was there for you and you were there for me.  
Please remember, our time togeather.  
When time was yours and mine and we were wild and free.  
And remember. Please remember.....me  
  
  
~Alex laid on the oversized windowsill of Shelby's new apartment. He had bought the apartment for her three days ago. Patty OD'd four days ago. He never left Shelby's alone for the first few nights. He had told his father that he was at a friend's house. Better than to tell him the truth. He didn't know how to say: "Hey Dad, I'm taking care of a hooker by putting her up in one of the expensinve apartments on third that the company owns." He couldn't do that. He wouldn't do that. Not to his dad, and definately not to Shelby. He couldn't do that to Shelby. Slowly he stood and walked over to the CD player. He didn't want to wake her with one of her harder CDs, so he slid something soft into the player.   
  
Shelby waited for the first few chords of Ricky Martin's song 'Private Emotion' to sound before she climbed out of bed. Slowly she made her way across the large room and glanced at herself in the full legnth mirror. Her skin was pale and all the baby fat she once posessed was no gone. The thin material of her sweat pants hung loose around her hips, and her white tank top clung to her chest as if it were wet. She had bought herself all new clothes with some of the money that Patty had left her. She didn't use much. Mostly beacuse she was afraid of the fact that someone might be monitoring the account. She opened the door slightly and watched Alex's tall form get a beer out of the fridge. "Get me one too." She said gently.  
  
He had to admit that her voice startled him. He wasn't expecting her to get up any time soon. Obeying her order, Alex popped the top off of another beer and handed it to her. Then something crazy popped into his head. "You care to dance?" He asked her, only half joking. Shelby set her beer on the counter and held her arms out to him. Alex lifted her gently off the floor, and danced around the room. Then he slowed, and set her on her own feet. Neither one of them would ever forget that night. Alex got his first taste at love, and Shelby got her first chance to relax.~  
  
  
*And how we laughed.  
And how we smiled.  
And how each morn was yours and mine.  
And when each dream was out of reach...  
I stood by you, you stood by me.*  
  
Auggie was fully aware of himself falling asleep, Juliet in his arms. Scott hadn't moved from his place on the couch. Before he allowed himself to sleep, however, he made himself think of a happier time with all the Cliffhangers. His favorite thing that had happened in all his years at Horizon. The Morp. Everyone was so happy there. Even Shelby, once Scott had returned. That was the night that Scott had first told her he loved her. That was the night before the entire situation between Scott and Shelby sarted. That was the last night they all could honestly calim that they were happy.  
  
  
*We took each day and made it shine.  
We wrote our names across the sky.  
We ran so fast, we ran so free.  
I had you and you had me.*  
  
  
~The two sat in silance on the porch. Neither wanting to start the round of questions. Finally Shelby could take no more of the silance. "Ask away." She repeated. In her mind she was hoping that he would decide not to ask any questions and wait until she was ready to give the answers willingly. "Come on Scott. It doesn't take that long to think up a question."  
  
"Okay." Scott was trying to buy himself some time. He didn't want to know the answers to his questions just yet. He wanted the questions themselves to settle. "When you were....you know, on the street..." He kept stalling. His mind told him to spit the question out, but he couldn't make himself do it. "How much did you make a night?" He decided to start off easy. No need to go further than he had to in that much time.   
  
"Depended on the night." Shelby was being totally serious. It felt as if she were talking to Peter. "I could usually make about six to seven hundred a night. Enough to pay my half of the rent for a couple months and stock the fridge every other week." She watched for Scott's reaction. He was holding himself togeather pretty well all things considering. "Alex covered Patty's side of the rent a lot. He was always around when we needed him. He kept us pretty well stocked." That was when she was sure she had said something that should have gone unsaid.  
  
"He was your supplier." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. One that Scott wished he could have held in. The conversation went from bad to worse over those four words. The rest of the conversation was held with hushed tones and held back anger. Neither one wanted to hurt the other, but it was inevidible. Scott just had to hear it. No matter what. ~  
  
  
*Please remember. Please remember.*  
  
And that's how they spent they're first night in the Solo Cabin. Auggie and Juliet took the floor next to the couch. Juliet felt so protected against Auggie's chest. Ezra, and Jess fell asleep on the table in the kitchen, and after he knew they were asleep, David carried both of them into the boys' section of the cabin. He tenderly placed them in two seperate beds, hoping neither of them would remember that it was David that had done it. David himself fell asleep in the girls' room, after bringing Daisy in a pillow. Daisy and Shelby shared on of the full beds in the room. Shelby never moved during the night, and Daisy sat up talking to David until sleep took them both. Then there was Scott. Scott didn't sleep that night. He kept replaying the scene between him and Shelby on the porch in his head. He wanted to figure out where he went wrong. Occasionally he turned to watch Juliet and Auggie on the floor. Praying that he could, once again, have what they had. Love.  
  
  
  
*So what did you think??????? REVIEW PLEASE  
*Want more long ones??? Then review. The more reviews, the longer they are. 


	13. Chapter 13 (Then the fun starts. Auggie ...

  
~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace, his father and his secretary Connie.~   
  
*I got so many reviews for the last one, You guys must really like the longer parts....So here it is.   
*This is going to be one of the last segments of "Cabin Bound." I am going to bring you which idea they are going to re-live in my new fic "The Eyes Are Your Window." It should be posted some time around Thanksgiving.  
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
The cell phone on the counter rung a few times before Auggie was awake enough to answer it. After making sure Juliet hadn't woken up, he slid out from under her and proped himself on a chair as he reached for the phone. "What?" He asked angerily. He heard a rustle behind him, and turned to see Shelby bring a knife out of the back room. There was still no response from the other line. "Hello?"  
  
Shelby dropped the knife in the sink. "Just hang up on them Aug." She offered helpfully, watching to see if Scott was looking at her. He wasn't of course, but she had told herself that he could have been. Shelby took the phone from Auggie and was about three seconds away from pushing the end button when a voice interupted her.  
  
"Shell?"  
  
The phone was at her ear faster than she could say anything. "Hey." Auggie walked back over to his place on the floor and scooped Juliet up to take her into the girls' room. He didn't bother asking who was on the phone. He had a feeling that he already knew. "Where'd you get the number?"  
  
The bathroom was still flooded with steam from his shower when Alex decided to give Shelby a call. He wasn't sure what time she was to get up, so he just hoped for the best. The smooth silk of his new shirt felt so good against his skin as he dressed. "That's the thing about cell phones Slate." He started to mock her, throwing in the name for an added extra. "They can save the numbers that call them. You didn't remember that?" He waltzed out of the hotel room to see Martin Barringer standing in the middle of his suite. "Hey Slate, I'll call you back." He hung up on her without a second thought. Something I can help you with Mr. Barringer? He started shortly.  
  
  
Shelby set the phone back on the counter and went to the radio in the corner. The dials were set so that all they had to do was turn it on and they could reach Horizon. "Well," The first knob turned easily. "Lets get this little Quest going, shall we." The lights came on and she could hear all the different counsolers who had taken their groups on Quest talking to the person who was unlucky enough to be incharge of the switchboard. "Cliffhangers to Horizon?" Shelby started. "Jeff you there?" It only took a second for Jeff to repsond. "Peter and Sophie back yet?" She waited patiently for his answer.  
  
"Peter here." Peter rubbed his hands on the back of his neck. There was something in Shelby's voice that he wanted to take further, but he wouldn't do it over the radio. "What do you need Shelby?" He already knew that she was probably the first one up. Checking his watch, the red digital numbers were flashing 9:34. 'This is way too early for everyone else. Especially if they were up as late as Jeff said.' Still, he thought he might humor Shelby for a while.   
  
"Oh I don't know.....A combination would be nice." The edge in her voice just wouldn't disapear. Even after Auggie came back into the room and hugged her good morning, she still couldn't shake what happened the other night. "We can't open the lock box without one."   
  
Peter passed to transmitter to Sophie. "I'll give you a hint." She started. She would rather Shleby figure it out on her own than them tell her. It would make her think. "Admission date." Soohie didn't need to tell her anymore. "Horizon out." And the radio went dead.  
  
Auggie brought her a steaming cup of coffee. "Here, this might take some of the edge off." It was as if he was reading her mind. She took a sip and closed her eyes, savoring the taste as it went down. "What was Sophie's hint for the lock box?"  
  
"Admission date." Both of them looked completely surprised by this. Sophie wouldn't be that mean. To pick one of the Cliffhangers' admit dates at random. That would take them forever to figure out. "Get me a piece of paper." She commanded softly. "We'll do this rationally. Kat was admitted on January thirteenth. You and I came in November twenty-first, Juliet admitted on-"  
  
Daisy popped her head out of the door. "When were you admitted?"  
  
Auggie thought for a second. "November twenty-first. Why-"  
  
"Shell? What's TODAY's date?" Dasiy was on to something, she only hoped she was right.  
  
"The twenty-first..." Then it hit her. "Of November. Auggie get the box and put in eleven-two-one and see if it opens." The lock stayed shut. "How about one twelve one?" She said out loud, trying it out. The lock still stayed shut. "Loved the idea Daze, but the lock won't open."  
  
Daisy pulled the box into her lap. "Was anyone else admitted on the twenty-first of November?" She thought trying to come up with a suitable number to go in front. 'Shelby, Auggie, David...' Then it hit her. "DAVID!" The others stared at her. "David was admitted on the twenty-first. So it wasn't that that wasn't the right date. It was that there was supposed to be a number in front of that." As she talked, she put in the numbers three, eleven, twenty-one, and the lock popped open. "Go me." She pulled out the envelope and passed it to Shelby. "I think we should wait for everyone else before opening it." She commented quickly, as she stole Auggie's coffee cup away from him.   
  
A hand jetted out in front of Shelby and her coffee disapeared. Ezra stood on the other side of Daisy, the steaming hot cup of coffee in his right hand. "Yummy." He said simply. "I told you Shell, I can smell caffine." Everyone laughed, and Shelby went into the kitchen and poured four more cups of coffee and a two large glasses of orange juice. She brought two cups over to the table, setting one in front of Ezra before snatching hers out of his hand. Daisy stood, with cup in hand, and took one of the remianing two cups over to Scott.   
  
"Go away, Daisy." Scott said angerily. "I don't want-"  
  
"You either listen to me or pack you bags and get ready to leave early." Daisy didn't have time for Scott's attituide. "This holier than thou shit you're playing is going to stop. I don't know what you think she did on the streets, but chances are you didn't hear anything she told you last night. If you did, you'd know how much she's hurting. You think she sold herself for her? You think you leaving didn't bring back any of those feelings of abandonment and resentment. You think you leaving only hurt you didn't you?"  
  
"Daze-"  
  
Daisy didn't let him finish his sentence. "No. This is MY turn to talk and you're gonna sit there and listen." She slammed the cups of coffee on one of the side tables and noticed that everyone was listening to them. Even the missing three people had awaken to hear her tell Scott off. "You're not the king of the world here Scott. I don't care what they thought about you back home. Here, you're just plain Scott. We've seen the good, the bad and the ugly, and we used to think more about you than the fact that you could catch footballs. Then you left. You built up her world, and then dropped her like she was nothing to you. We thought you cared about her."  
  
"I do!"  
  
"THEN WHY'D YOU LEAVE?!" No one had ever seen this side of Daisy, and it was scaring them. Daisy had all this pent up anger and hurt was exploding on Scott's face. She could have sworn a few hours ago that she had more self control than this. It was as if something clicked in her brain that told her that this was the way to stop Shelby's pain. And Daisy, being the friend she was, had no choice than to do what she had to. "Tell us Scott? Why did you let go of us to go back to HIM?"  
  
The room fell silent. Even Peter and Sophie, who were watching from the camera that was positioned right about the fireplace, couldn't say a word. They had no idea that this could come from them spending the night unsupervised. Yes, they had known that Auggie and Shelby had issues with Scott, but never Daisy. They never suspected Daisy. They silently debated with themselves whether or not to re-pack ther bags and head up there to get them and bring them back.   
  
"We're waiting?" She spat. Even she couldn't explain her mood. After another few minutes of the silence and she had had enough. "You know what? Keep your thoughts to yourself. WE don't want to hear it. You couldn't give us and explenation five months ago, why should you be able to give it to us today? I pity you Scott."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Daisy shook herself off, and wiped the unshed tears from his eyes. "Some of us aren't lucky enough to find our soulmate. Here yours is, standing not ten feet away from you, and you don't want anything to do with her." She turned and walked into the girls' room. "I pity you." The door slammed, and nothing more was said in the room.   
  
  
But Shelby wouldn't let Daisy get off that easily. She marched into the room and re-slammed the door. "What the hell do you think you just did in there?" She shouted as long as she could. Part of her wanted to hug her friend, but the other part of her wanted to strangle the life out of her. "Daze?"  
  
Her head lifted, but Daisy refused to look her best friend in the eyes. "I don't know Shell. I just... I just hate seeing you like this." Her relationship with two people were on the line. The least Daisy could do was save one of them, and she had given up on Scott. "I hate watching you destroy yourself over a guy who can't figure out what he wants. You were right back when you told me about him. He's self centered, and irrational. He only wants something he can't have. And I refuse to let him toss you around like one of his footballs."  
  
Shelby didn't know what to say. "I know you're trying to protect me, Daze, but I don't think we need to worry about Scott. I think you made him realize what he wanted." She pulled Daisy into a huge bear hug. "Remind me to thank you one day."   
  
  
  
Sophie had her pack, and was almost on her way out the administration building before Peter could get a hold of her. "Soph. Sophie WAIT." She whirled around and looked directly into his eyes. "Sophie you need to think about this. They have to work out their problems on their own." He was making sense. At least he thought so. "Soph we need to let them work out their problems by themselves."  
  
"And if they kill each other first?" That was a point that Peter had forgotten. "Peter, you may not see it, but leaving them up there to figure things out...We never found Shelby's knife. What if she decides to end it up there? Or what if David finds it and decides to take revenge on Scott for leaving them? Peter, my kids are up the that mountain, and I refuse to leave them there when they could put themselves in danger."   
  
Peter knew that Spohie was right. "Okay, we can go get them. I should have known that this wouldn't work." Peter reached into the office and grabbed his pack. "Just give me enough time to hit the breakfast bar. I need my stregnth if I'm gonna tackle the trails again." Then arm in arm they headed to the lodge.  
  
  
  
"What do you mean he's coming to get us?" Auggie yelled at the radio. "He left us here last night. Jeff, he can't be on his way back up." Aggie listen to Jeff explain the situation one more time before having enough. "Cliffhangers out." He slammed the transmitter on the table and looked at everyone. "Damn." The realization of what had happened hit him. The gourp couldn't even work togeather for ten minutes. They had lost the ability to trust, and that was what was splitting the Cliffhangers up. "Peter and Sophie are on their way up. They think we need to work out our problems in Group."  
  
Jess didn't know what had happened. "We don't HAVE a group therefore we can't HOLD Group." They had all crowded around the livingroom area. The way they were sitting showed Jess that they Cliffhangers she had joined last May were gone. Auggie and Juliet were at the table that held the radio, neither one of them looking at the chair that Scott was in. Daisy and David were on the couch, it looked like David was seperating Daisy and Scott. Shelby sat in Ezra's lap, with his left hand around her waist. Ezra had been able to keep a good grip on her so far. He only hoped that she wouldn't do something crazy like attempt to jump at Scott. Everyone on her side of the room looked like ther were somehow guarding her from Scott. This wasn't the group she had joined in May. "So?" She asked the room. "Waht do we do now?" 


	14. Chapter 14 (We get a glimpse into Daisy'...

  
~Disclaimer: I own none of them, I'm just playing with them, and I'll be returning them when I get through. I also stake no claim to any episodes that I use for the Flashbacks. They belong to the writers and FFC. I do however own Alex Wallace, his father and his secretary Connie, as well as anyone Scott knew when he was at home with his father.~   
  
*Not many reviews for the last one...I'm going to go ahead and give you a long one, but you have to work for the next series. I'm not giving anything away.  
*This is going to be the last segment of "Cabin Bound." I am going to bring you which idea they are going to re-live in my new fic "The Eyes Are Your Window." It should be posted sometime in the next week.   
  
~If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you have never truly lived.~ Unknown  
  
  
  
After a brief breakfast, the Cliffhangers split up busing themselves with various activities in and around the cabin. Juliet had recruted Jessica to help her clean up the kitchen and then pack up everyones bags for them, while Auggie located an axe and decided to chop enough wood for them to make it through the cold day. Ezra and David were content just sitting at the kitchen table, David teaching Ezra how to play poker. No one had even bothered Scott, who hadn't moved from his spot on the couch since Daisy's little outburst, and both Shelby and Daisy had disapeared sometime before Juliet had announced her notion to clean up. Everyone had their own thoughts and ideas about where the two had gone, and what they were doing. None of which were correct.  
  
  
Light from the flame danced with it's reflection in a pair of blue eyes. It lit the tip of the paper, and was immediately extinguiished. A thin line of smoke rose from Shelby's fingers. "Smoking sucks," she mumbled ironically as she took her first puff. She wasn't sure where she had gotten the idea to have Auggie pack her cigarettes, but part of her was glad she did. Daisy sat to Shelby's right, an unlit cigarette rolling between her thumb and her forefinger. "But so do we."  
  
"We don't suck." Daisy said pointedly. That was the truth in Daisy's mind. "Well......" She looked up into Shelby's eyes and watched her take another drag. "At least I know I don't." The girls laughed togeather and Daisy lit her cigarette. There were only two thought going through her head. 'Peter would be so disapointed in us,' and 'oh God what have I become? I have become the one thing my parents have always dreaded me being. Myself. Peter warned me it would happen sooner or later, he just never said when.' Daisy finished her cigarette in silance and started off into the distance  
  
~The sun shone down from the clouds as if it was supposed to be there. It hit the side of the smooth marble tombstone and reflected on to the varioius colors of flowers that blanketed the grave. Daisy didn't know what she was supposed to do now. So she just talked. "You suprised me on this one Mom. I always thought Daddy would bite it first." Pressure shifted from one foot to the other, and the wind died down just enough. "I didn't want to come, but I guess you already knew that. Probably saw me and Daddy get into it. Nothings changed. These past couple of days, I've been searching my heart for anything that would help me cry for you, cry for myself. You know what? Nothing." Yawning briefly, Daisy shifted the paper bag from hand to hand. She was convinced that if she could tell her mother everything that she would feel better. So she had to tell her mother everything that was on her mind. "You were a lousy mother." Her bluntness shocked herself. She wasn't used to talking like this. "I think you knew that too. Probably why you drank. I was a reminder of her shortcomings.  
  
"That may be why I had to hide behind all this." She emptied the contents of the paper bag onto the beautiful flower arangements. The brightness of the flowers on the darkness of her gothic outfit appaled her. Something that happy celebrating the death of her mother. It was almost as if her two lives were meeting, and they couldn't agree which one would get her future. "I don't want to hide anymore. I think I'm ready to be me again." She'd heard Sophie say something like that once, it never occured to her that she would someday repeat it. Then she thought of Shelby. "I don't think I need the mask anymore. Ashes to ashes, huh?" The irony of that hit her, hard. She shuttered in the wind and heard the rustling of a piece of paper. "Oh, and this." She held up the burnt piece of sheet music. "The first song you taught me to sing." Amazing Grace, she finished to herself. "This is the ONLY connection that I remember us having." The paper floated out of her hand and landed on top of her old clothing. Daisy wasn't allowing her mother to control her life anymore. That was ending now, with her final words. "Hopefully you've finaaly found peace. I will continue searching for mine." ~  
  
To this day, that was how Daisy had convinced herself to remember her mother. She wouldn't remember her as the pathetic creature that drank. No, Daisy remembered her mother being strong, and fighting to put her child in an enviroment that would help her. It was easier with her being gone. Her father on the other hand.....  
  
~"You were my little girl once." Her father stopped trying to listen to her and just told her what he wanted to say. He was dweling on the past, a place that wasn't too comfertable for his daughter. A part of him knew that too.  
  
"Once." Daisy repeated discustedly. She knew that he couldn't look at her the same after what she had done about a year ago. He probably still thought it was only her fault. "Well that was definately the AFFERMATION I was looking for!" She didn't even know why she had agreed to talk to him. She regretted the decision.  
  
"This isn't easy for me!" He didn't know how to make her understand.  
  
"You think this is easy for me?!" Every breath he took made her wish it was him who died instead of her mother. At least her mother would try to understand. "My MOTHER is DEAD, and my FATHER can't even look me in the eye and say ANYTHING remotley comferting." Her thoughts jumbled togeather, and she had to wipe her face to prove to herself that she wasn't crying. She didn't know what to do anymore. She wanted her life back, and the only way that she thought she could have it was if he was gone.   
  
Her father pulled something out from his jacket and handed it to her. It was a bag, that seemed a little heavy in her hands. "Here, take it." She let the bag fall from her grasp, but held onto the straps. "I was going to go over it with your mother, but you take it." He shifted uncomfertably in front of her. "You need anything?" He asked automatically.  
  
"Yeah." Daisy almost threw the bag back at him. "Parents." She turned on her heel and walked back to the truck, ignoring his last few words. He wasn't the father that she needed. Nor was he the one she wanted. She could have done better in that department, but at least she had a father. She could thank God for at least that. ~  
  
Shelby finished off her cigarette enjoying the silance. Her heart didn't want to talk about what was bothering her. It was best if she just kept it inside. Not only for her, but to those around her. She's seen the kid of distruction that one could cause if they put they're mind to it. After Patty had died, she had promised herself that that wasn't the way she would go. She would die fighting.   
  
~"Penny for your thoughts?" Alex dropped a handful of cash on the counter and passed Shelby a beer. It was the night after Patty died, and Shelby hadn't gone out to work yet . He hoped that she wouldn't decide to go seeing as though she was only wearing a pair of tight fitting holy jeans, and a tank top. That wasn't the kind of Stuff that Shelby would wear to work.   
  
The cash slid easily from the table to Shelby's hand and she counted it out. "This isn't a penny." She joked as she shoved the three hundred dollars into her back pocket.   
  
"Point being?"  
  
Her thin lips curved into a smile and she pushed herself away from the counter. The sway of her hips and she walked back to her room excited Alex, but he would never do anything to take advantage of her. "No point." Shelby kept the door open just enough for him to catch a glimpe of her in the mirror on her wall. The jeans slid off easily to reveal a pair of black lace panties. Before Alex got a chance to say anything about it, she pulled on a pair of black leather pants that zipped on each side. The tank top stayed on only because it clung to her and showed just enough of her to be seductive. She would make some good money tonight. "Don't wait up." She called as she left through the back door. There was no thought in her mind about her best friend. She wouldn't let Patty's death get the best of her. She couldn't if she wanted to survive.~  
  
Both girls looked at each other and laughed. They had been gone for a little over an hour, and both knew that if they weren't back soon, Auggie would come looking for them. Without a word, Shelby stood up from her place on the riverbank and helped Daisy regain her balance. Then togeather, they walked back to the cabin.  
  
  
  
"Scotty, you wanna play?"   
  
The words hung in his mind like a chandaler. If they fell it would mean disaster for him and Shelby. She already hated him, but if she found out what he did....It would kill her. Nothing could prepare him for the reaction that the group would give him if he told them about her. 'It only happened once.' He told himself for the hundredth time. 'She didn't mean anything. Brittany doesn't mean anything to you. Not like Shelby. She's nothing like Shelby.' His heart was convinced that it was almost forgotten, but his mind was terrified that he would let something slip and his world would come crashing down around him. 'She didn't mean anything to you. Just a release.' He stood up and wandered around the room for a bit, making sure the fire was still going. Noting that David and Ezra kept an eye on him while they played poker. 'And besides, you were drunk.'  
  
~"Scotty, you wanna play?" Brittany asked him jokingly, passing the deck of cards to Brian , the group card shark. Brittany and the gang had been playing poker. Working for simple things like candy first, then they had gotten into the harder stuff, like money and drugs. Scott had stayed at the other end of the room for as long as he could. No matter where he was in the room, Britt always seemed to find him. He couldn't dodge her forever.   
  
"Not this time, Britt." He tried to shrug her off and grab himself another beer. Somehow though, she seemed to wedge herself between him and the table. She was so persistant, with her ruby red lips, blonde hair, and baby blue eyes. That combination reminded him of another blonde that held his attention. "I'm not into that kind of thing anymore." He pushed the image of Shelby into the front of his mind. He had to remember her. He was going back to her soon enough, he didn't want to mess up a second chance. "I just want to kick back and relax."  
  
Brittany wouldn't give up. She would have him by the end of the night, she swore it. He wouldn't have forgotten her in his time at that school. "Then can I take you home?" Her eyelashes fluttered a few times. "Tristan brought you here, but he disapeared with Chelsey earlier. I promise you I haven't had a thing to drink."  
  
"Then you're one step above us all." A waving hand motioned to the rest of the madness. Music blasted from every speaker in the house, and the smoke was so think in some places that you would need a few months to air out the entire house. It was the kind of party that Scott would have loved to go to before he had been sent away. Before Shelby. "Sure. I could use a ride." ~  
  
  
That's how that night began. He wasn't sure how they had gotten to her house, or even how she had talked him into coming up with her. But the next morning, he was waking up beside her. Her blonde hair falling across the white pillows like a waterfall. At first he thought she was Shelby. 'Boy was I wrong.' Scott thought as he threw another log onto the fire. It was getting very chilly even though it was barely eleven in the morning. Maybe it was just his mood. "If only I hadn't gone to that party." He noted quietly. 'I would have saved myself the anguish of having to deal with the consequences.' The door opened, and Shelby and Daisy walked in and slid their jackets off. Juliet and Jess had stopped packing, and were now on the couch, and Auggie had brought in the last of the firewood.Everyone was in that small room. The one that seemed to get smaller.   
  
Jessica had been quiet all day. Ever since her outburst about Group. She could no longer hold her silance. "I'm calling Group." She said with steady accuracy. Everyone knew that she was like Shelby in many ways. "We could spend the next few hours squabbling and only saying two words to each other, or we could act like the people that Peter and Sophie trusted to be on this mountian alone. It's up to you." Blue eyes came in contact with blue eyes, and Shelby held her breath. "I for one refuse to let a few differences spoil my one chance at freedom." The breath was released. "I want to settle this like Cliffhangers." They knew that she was right. Group was the ONLY way they could settle this. "Who wants to start?" No one answered. She noticed the odd circle that they made and took it like anyone of them would have. "Okay then, I'll just have to play Sophie. You have exactly thirty seconds to think of one word something NICE about the person sitting to your left. I'll start." She looked over at Ezra and thought for a second. "Sweet. Ezra?"  
  
"Strong. Shelby?"  
  
"Calm. Juliet?"  
  
"Cute. Auggie?"  
  
Dead silance. The person to Auggie's left was none other than Scott. In a way, Jess planned it like that. To confront the problem, she had to prove that there was a problem. Auggie knew that too. He took a few deep breaths and looked at Shelby. He didn't know what to say. All the words that came to mind weren't nice ones. 'Come on Augg.' He could hear Shelby saying. 'You can do this one.' Nodding his head, Auggie smiled. "Smart. Scott?"  
  
Another silance. Scott's eyes focased on Daisy's."Brave. Daisy?"  
  
"Strange....In a good way. David?"  
  
"Brilliant." He patted Jessica on the shoulder. "Absolutely brilliant." She was the only Cliffhanger that hadn't been polluted by everyone's opinion. The little piece inside her hadn't been ripped to shreds. "I think we should follow the little one's lead." No one was following him. "As Peter would say. You don't know what's wrong with everyone until you-"  
  
"TALK IT OUT." Everyone finished for him. "Okay," Shelby pulled herself off of the floor and into the chair with her sister. "Let's start this out the right way." She took a coffee cup off of the table and smiled. This wasn't going to be as hard as she thought. "My firend Alex is coming to visit me from Santa Monica. H-he's always been there for me. This seemed to cause a slight problem when a certian member of this group found out that he just happened to be me and Patty's supplier...." She held her sister tight and looked up at Scott. "It seems that him coming to visit adds to the whole big picture. I wanted to to tell everyone about him before you got the chance to ask him............."  
  
  
  
Peter and Sophie got to the lodge just as dinner started. They had already set a place for them at the table, and it suprised them to see everyone working togeather. Peter smiled at his wife. "Hey Soph?" He said smartly. "I just had a great idea."  
  
"You'll leave us here for another week?" Ezra asked hopefully.  
  
"Uh.....no." Peter took the salt from Ezra and moved to spread some on top of Sophie's plate. "I had the idea of what you are going to do for your activity." He looked at Sophie and set his fork down. "I think Kat had the right idea about something...."  
  
"No way!" Shelby yelled over Juliet's gasp. "You are not letting us-" Her breath gave out and she was only a few seconds from freaking out. "We're actually going to let us?!"  
  
"That's right guys." Sophie smiled. "We're going to let you have-"  
  
"ANOTHER MORP!!" The group finished for her. 


End file.
